Chapter 36

Amber’s POV

After Julian left, I had so many mixed feelings about the evening that I didn’t know what to do with them. I was tired too, maybe too tired to confront everything that was going on with me. At least to do so properly.

So, even though I wanted to reflect on the day’s events to try to make sense of all that’s happened, what I thought I should do more than anything else was get some sleep.

Returning inside the rental house, I locked the door, then headed upstairs. I checked in on Alice, who seemed to be asleep. She was still wearing her clothes from the day and needed to change into her pajamas, but I let her sleep for a few moments while I went to shower and change out of my gown.

Even as I tried not to think about things, memories of the evening still crept into my mind.

That dance with Julian… The way his hand sat so firmly and assuredly at the small of my back as he led me around the dance floor…

It had been too much then, and too much now. I couldn’t fall back under his charms; they’d only ever been used to hurt me, giving me a false sense of comfort and happiness before Julian ripped it all away again.

I couldn’t forget the person Julian was, nor could I allow myself to pretend that Olivia wasn’t still present. She was the one he truly loved, the one he wanted and planned to be with, the woman he had cheated on me with, making her pregnant.

To forget any of that was to leave me open for heartache.

Years had passed since our breakup, but Olivia was still in the picture. Julian chose her and continued to at every passing chance.

It wasn’t his business if Roman and I were going to get married. Why should he care at all, when he had Olivia beside him?

My thoughts were spiraling out of control, and I frowned, deeply unhappy with myself for allowing even one shred of thought dedicated to this ridiculous.

Hadn’t I promised myself even before getting on that plane, that I was done with Julian forever? After having survived the plane crash, after making it through so much… Why would I even think about wanting to allow that hurt back into my life?

Frustrated, I changed into the pajamas I set out for myself, and then stepped out of the bathroom.

Alice was standing in the hallway, looking up at me with tired eyes.

“How about we get you changed into your PJs, Alice? Then you can go back to bed,” I suggested.

Watching me, she frowned a little. “Can I sleep in your room tonight?”

I blinked, surprised. Alice was usually very independent and stopped asking to stay in my room years ago… except for after the nights when she shifted, when she was scared and in pain.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised to see her shadow outside my doorway tonight. Her wolf had made an appearance tonight. She must have been scared.

“Let’s get you dressed, and then we’ll come back, okay?” I said.

Alice agreed.

Quickly, we moved to her room, where she changed into her pajamas, then we returned to mine, where we both crawled into the bed. We turned on our sides to look at each other. Alice looked so tired, her eyelids heavy, her eyes a bit red. Yet, even as she yawned, she was fighting off sleep.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked her in the quiet of the room. It was getting late, and the world was mostly still around us. Even the busy street outside the house was without traffic at this time of day.

Alice hesitated for a moment before she asked, “Are you really going to marry Uncle Roman?”

The answer on my tongue was no, but… what if that was something Alice wanted after all? Her reaction to the proposal hadn’t been a good one, but for someone her age, she might have simply been overwhelmed and unsure what to do with her emotions.

Instead of assuming I knew everything about my daughter, perhaps it was better to simply ask.

“Would you like that?” I asked gently. “Having a daddy?”

Alice shook her head. “I’ve already picked out my new daddy and it’s not Uncle Roman.”

I waited for her to continue. She seemed like she had a lot to say from the way she frowned and avoided my gaze. When she didn’t say anything more on her own, I prompted, “Were you scared today?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Why?” I asked.

She returned her gaze to me. “Do you want to marry Uncle Roman?”

Such a heavy question from such a little girl, and one I’d already been asked this evening several times. By Roman himself, by Julian, and now by Alice.

For each, my answer was the same. “No.”

Relief crossed Alice’s face. “Don’t marry him, Mommy…” She yawned, and at last her eyes started to drift closed.

“Why not?” I couldn’t resist asking.

As she snuggled in her pillow, she said, “The husband is supposed to make the wife smile…”

I watched her a moment, as her breathing evened out and sleep pulled her under. As she drifted off into dream world, I wondered why show had given her that idea about marriage, though I supposed it wasn’t a bad thing to learn.

Someday, I wanted Alice to only marry someone who would make her smile.

There had been moments with Julian when I had smiled, but… the secrecy and the lies had been too much to bear. And then when Olivia returned…

I couldn’t go back to Julian. Alice was right, I needed someone who made me smile. As of now, that was neither Roman nor Julian.

As I contemplated this, my own eyelids grew heavy and soon I followed my daughter into sleep.

As the next morning was the weekend, which meant no school for Alice, I decided to make pancakes since we weren’t in a rush. I’d just finished a batch and set Alice up with butter and syrup at the table when someone pressed the doorbell three times in quick succession.

It was the desperate kind of doorbell ringing that usually meant there was some kind of emergency.

After making sure Alice was set and the burner on the stove was turned off, I hurried to the front door and opened it, unsure what I’d find beyond.

It was Anna, looking somewhat flustered.

The moment she saw me, she didn’t even say hello. Instead, the first thing out of her mouth was, “What happened last night?”

I didn’t even know where to begin. “Roman proposed,” I said. That seemed a good place to start.

“Yeah, I know he did!” she said.

Wait. That confused me. “You… do? How?”

Anna opened her phone and scrolled to something. As she turned the phone to me, I saw it was a social media post flooded with likes and comments. The post was a headline and link to a newspaper article.

The article was titled, Back from the Dead, Alpha Julian’s Ex to Marry Alpha Roman.

I grabbed the phone, looking closer. “What is this? I said no!”

“You did?” Anna asked. “That’s not what the article says. There’s a quote in there from Roman himself saying you accepted. He says you guys are setting the date.”

“He… what?” I clicked on the article and scrolled down, trying to read as fast as I could.

At the same time, my own phone buzzed in my pocket. I checked who was calling.

Roman.